SHC dismisses judges’ petition

Staff Report

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by seven judges challenging the appointment of 28 civil and sessions judges. Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwer Zaheer Jamali comprised the bench.

The petition said the 28 judges had been inducted into the Sindh Judicial Service as civil judges and first class magistrates in 1992 before the enforcement of the Sindh Judicial Service Rules 1994.

It said the rules provided for direct appointments only to the lower grades (civil judges and judicial magistrates) and as additional district and sessions judges. Senior civil judges should be appointed by promotion from among the serving civil judges and judicial magistrates on the recommendation of the provincial selection board, the petition said. In case of non-availability of a suitable judge from the lower grade, these vacancies could be filled directly through initial recruitment.

The petition said 25 senior civil judges were inducted into the service in 1996 by an acting chief justice of the SHC through initial appointments even though suitable judges were available. The provincial selection board did not recommend these directly appointed senior civil judges. “Our suitability was never determined,” the judges said in the petition, adding that the appointments should not have been made by an acting chief justice in the light of the 1996 Supreme Court verdict in another case.

The petitioners were Syed Saeed Hassan, Kausar Sultana, Syed Ikramur Rehman, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, Imdad Hussain Khoso, Shehar Bano and Akhtar Sultana. The bench quoted cases in which judges had been appointed in the same manner as the 28 civil judges and dismissed the petition.

SHC adjourns Shiekh Omar’s appeal: A Sindh High Court division bench adjourned the hearing of the appeal of Sheikh Ahmed Saeed Omar till April 9.

Mr Omar had been sentenced to death by an anti terrorism court for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The bench, comprised of Justices Sarmad Jalal Usmani and Rehmat Hussain, adjourned the hearing as the Defence Counsel Rai Bashir failed to appear in court.

Meanwhile, a division bench of Sindh High Court, comprised of Justices Roshan Essani and Mujeebullah Siddiqui, accepted an appeal by four people convicted in a murder case. An anti-terrorism court in March 2000 had sentenced Javed, Abdul Rauf, Imran and Siraj to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Ayesha Khan.

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